We caught up with the busy and insightful Patrick Trolan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Patrick, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
First thing’s first, I’m Irish. I moved to Carlsbad at the start of 2011 and since then have largely worked in sports media and, more recently, branched out to start up my own media production company, MediaBaller (mediaballer.com).
Throughout this period I had always flirted with the idea of starting an American Irish street clothing brand. A brand that stood for something and made clothes that I would want to wear myself – kind of a solution to the “I can’t find any clothes to buy that I like” problem. And so, the idea of ‘Black Irish Clothing’ was born.
The initial idea was to create a punk type of Irish street brand that revolved around the much documented and infamous ‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs’ shop signs that existed in London and other parts of Britain in the post-war era. Except, Black Irish Clothing would flip this idea and focus on everyone being welcome, hence our tagline ‘Always Welcome’ – which, when translated into the Irish language is; Fáilte I Gcónaí (yes, Ireland has it’s own language, widely referred to as Gaelic). In its simplest terms, the idea behind Black Irish Clothing is a middle finger to discrimination.
‘Black Irish Clothing’ had been born but, like so many of my ideas, just lay dormant. It was only in the past two months that one of my good friends, Peter Doherty, who now is my right hand man in this venture, convinced me to start properly working on the idea and get it up and running. When stuck inside with all this recent San Diego rain, what better time to launch your clothing brand :)
Our website and online store has been created. Our first clothing line, the ‘Black Irish Clothing Intro Collection’ has been fully designed (with multiple color variations) and posted. Our distribution partner has our items in stock. We are ready to go. All we need to do now is get it out there!
BLACK IRISH CLOTHING MISSION STATEMENT
We’re an independent American based clothing brand with an Irish heart and soul.
We love punk and all it stands for. We’re street but give a shit. We embody the spirit of the underdog. We don’t take life too seriously and are always up for the craic.
We love Ireland and its universal reach. We respect all cultures, ethnicities and races.
We want more blacks, more dogs and more Irish.
We’re Irish and against the grain.
We are the Black Irish.
Fáilte I Gcónaí / Always Welcome
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I know nothing about clothes or fashion, other than what I think is cool and like to wear.
I do, however, know how to create websites and design logos/graphics. Hence, mocking up the initial Black Irish Clothing tees, hoodies, hats etc was not an issue. Neither was creating the branding, website, e-commerce store and social media platforms. In fact, it has all been quite fun….so far.
This is because I work in the field of media production and have years of experience in creating websites, making videos, photography, design, audio production etc. As mentioned previously, in recent years I transitioned to self employment and now run my own media production company, MediaBaller, which I run within a dedicated area of my house (to find out more about MediaBaller and the services I offer please visit: mediaballer.com).
My first batch of Black Irish Clothing has just been shipped to my house and I will now begin working on a promotional video for the brand – again, which I will produce myself (with the assistance of my good friends who don’t know that they will be modeling yet :)
With Black Irish Clothing there is a solid, meaningful idea, slick branding and professional online representation. The hardest challenge will be getting this clothing brand in front of enough eyes to potentially have it become something.
I’m not scared at all of hard work but I am apprehensive when it comes to ‘playing the game’. Because, without an advertising budget, the only real game in town is social media.
Time will tell.
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
These days if you’re selling online it is more than likely that you will opt to set up a Shopify store. I believe it’s probably the most user friendly and has more templates than you can shake a stick at.
Unfortunately, for me, I build custom wordpress websites and have been doing so for years. I am a creature of habit, therefore I stick to what I know. So, for Black Irish Clothing, I built a custom wordpress website using Divi and plugged in Woo Commerce to enable the e-commerce element of the website.
Woo-commerce is very customizable but likes to charge for most extensions so I have been trying to find free plugins to suit my needs or else I turn to custom coding to get what I’m after.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Honestly, in terms of starting up Black Irish Clothing, I have been glued to YouTube. Watching video after video on how to start up your own clothing brand does help. Don’t get me wrong. Like everything in life, a great deal of it is common sense but there is some info to be extracted from these videos.
Also, because the meaning behind my clothing brand is based on what are now historic events, I did a little bit of research into Irish history. I knew the crux of what had happened but to use it as motivation for starting a clothing brand I wanted to be sure.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blackirishclothing.com
- Instagram: @blackirishclothing.com
- Facebook: @blackirishclothing.com
- Other: MediaBaller Website: https://mediaballer.com/
Image Credits
Patrick Trolan / MediaBaller.com